Model Swapping Bans Reduced to Warnings

A large number of bans went out yesterday, targeting a popular injector program which allowed users to not only edit and swap in-game models, but also exploit various aspects of the game. Today, several of those bans were overturned.

Why Ban in the First Place?

Many players used these programs for relatively harmless purposes, such as swapping their character model from one race to another, creating custom outfits, using transmogs they hadn't earned, adding nudity to the game, or giving female character models bigger boobs. While still against the ToS, these purposes have long been seen as harmless, due to the fact that only the user see the difference (the injector only affects what you see, not what other players see), and even tacitly approved as similar previous types of these programs, such as Tmorph, were used for several years without bans being issued. Blizzard broke the use of Tmorph in Legion, but over time several new programs became available with even more functionality.

However, some users have found more exploitative ways to use these programs, such as resizing flags in Battle Grounds to make players easier to find, manipulating model scale to increase the size of resource nodes, exploit their way into areas they otherwise shouldn't have access to, and otherwise manipulating the game world. Similar to the infamous wall hacking incident during AQ40, these are obvious exploits which Blizzard has very little tolerance for and has frequently issued bans on in the past.

This recent round of bans appears to have hit everyone using those programs, whether they used it for seemingly innocent reasons or not, from anywhere between 30, 180, and 549 days. Predictably, this has lead to a large amount of outcry on forums and social media platforms from both users claiming they'd done nothing wrong and others admitting guilt, leading to several new memes.

Ban Reversals

This afternoon there have been multiple reports of bans being overturned, purportedly for players who claimed to use the programs for innocuous reasons. While Blizzard has not yet commented on the situation (edit: they have now commented on the situation, see below), we can surmise that this means their intent was to target those players actually exploiting and negatively impacting the game, rather than the initial heavy handed pass. Although this is a good thing for those players who've found their situation reversed, it should serve as a reminder that while Blizzard may at times choose not to ban people for using programs which break the ToS, those players are still running the risk that it may happen at any time.

It's understandable that several players feel they are justified in only using the programs to improve their enjoyment of the game, but they are still breaking the ToS which runs the risk of their being banned. No matter how it is justified, whether they're giving themselves item appearances they haven't earned, avoiding the cost of race changes, or enhancing their assets, it still falls into the realm of cheating. Especially once those programs start being used to exploit and negatively impact other player's enjoyment, it's not surprising that Blizzard would come down hard, so if you're worried about your account the best advice is has already been given time and time again: Don't Cheat.

Blizzard Response

We now have a blue post regarding the situation, citing the decision to downgrade suspensions to warnings.

Blizzard

We recently completed a wave of suspensions for World of Warcraft accounts that were found to be operating third-party software that undermines the security of the World of Warcraft client. Reverse engineering and bypassing security protocols that safeguard against client modification is a clear violation of our Terms of Service, and we regularly take action against such behavior.

Many of the suspensions issued were for 180 days, as the exploit we detected allows for very malicious activities such as gameplay automation or rotation/interrupt botting. Upon further review, we found that some suspended accounts appeared to be only using the detected exploit to do client-side character model alteration. That is an activity that we would prefer to respond to with a warning, rather than a suspension, this time. As a result, we have reversed all of the suspensions issued in this action.

The use of third party software that modifies the World of Warcraft game client is against our Terms of Service. We expect players to remove such third party software, or their accounts will be subject to further action. Any future use of software that bypasses the security of the game client, regardless of intention or gameplay advantage, will be detected and sanctioned with increased penalties.

Commento di ZigzagFroglok

Commento di Stompsville

on 2019-04-26T17:52:29-05:00

This is so ridiculous. I've never heard of any one using it to exploit so I don't know why the main theme of this article was that. This isn't cheating... The only reason these bans went out and NEVER have before is because $$. They never cared before until now... I wonder why... They don't want people race changing or altering their character for free. All this talk about exploits in this article is bogus, don't believe it.

Commento di ShipmanMN

on 2019-04-26T17:52:57-05:00

It's probably a lot easier to blanket ban, and then allow those false flagged to appeal honestly.

Either way, harmless or not, you probably shouldn't break ToS.

Cheers to those unbanned.

Commento di ShipmanMN

on 2019-04-26T17:54:38-05:00

This is so ridiculous. I've never heard of any one using it to exploit so I don't know why the main theme of this article was that. This isn't cheating... The only reason these bans went out and NEVER have before is because $$. They never cared before until now... I wonder why... They don't want people race changing or altering their character for free. All this talk about exploits in this article is bogus, don't believe it.

Did you even read?

"However, some users have found more exploitative ways to use these programs, such as resizing flags in Battle Grounds to make players easier to find, manipulating model scale to exploit their way into areas they otherwise shouldn't be in, and even manipulating the game world itself. Similar to the infamous wall hacking incident during AQ40, these are obvious exploits which Blizzard has very little tolerance for and has frequently issued banned on in the past."

Commento di Anais777

on 2019-04-26T17:56:52-05:00

degenerates should have been perma banned.

Fun fact. using nudity mods came with improved versions of specific skimpy armors designs in very up to date texture and model design.

Some of this games armors are horribly out of date and have no replacements. Modding tools like that fixed that because blizz is doing jack. Those guys add fresh life into wows old armors. And they get banned for it.

The only degenerate thing here are those that crack down on harmless creativity and fanbois that defend it.

Commento di ercarp

on 2019-04-26T17:57:40-05:00

This is really good news. I used these mods in the past for roleplaying purposes (yes, erm, "roleplaying purposes") but fortunately wasn't affected by the ban wave, possibly due to not having used them recently. Still, I empathized with anyone that was banned because this could've easily been me and 6 months for boobs is a bit much.

Commento di Marclivis

on 2019-04-26T18:00:32-05:00

RIP "enhanced assets". Maybe Blizzard should finally bring character customization to a more modern level. What we have in game was bare-bones 15 years ago after all.

Commento di Garadronk

on 2019-04-26T18:00:43-05:00

If the users exploited the game they should be banned. They are using the exploit to get a upper hand against other players or just plainly cheat. Of course they are going to cry, they've been used to think they can control the game and cheat like they've wanted, it's not Blizzards fault. They can only blame themselves.

If they don't want to be banned, then don't cheat. Easy,

But it's nice to see Blizzard revoking bans from player who just did some cosmetic modding. All games should have some modding being ok, it makes people interested in programming, and learning how to make models as well it seems. As long as it's not an exploit/cheat that affects other players, it should be alright, but they are going against the ToS so, it's still a risk.

Commento di subverto

on 2019-04-26T18:00:56-05:00

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Always banning fun. Meanwhilst so much ^&*! is totally broken and exploits in 30 + man premade bgs have been around since early legion. You're so boring, Blizzard. This harmed noone.

-resizing bg flags so you could see a FC across the map

-this harmed no-one

ok.

Commento di ChunkyCoffee

on 2019-04-26T18:01:43-05:00

Esidien got their ban overturned.

Commento di zentorix

on 2019-04-26T18:02:03-05:00

This is so ridiculous. I've never heard of any one using it to exploit so I don't know why the main theme of this article was that. This isn't cheating... The only reason these bans went out and NEVER have before is because $$. They never cared before until now... I wonder why... They don't want people race changing or altering their character for free. All this talk about exploits in this article is bogus, don't believe it.

If that were true these bans would've gone out when race changing first came out.

Commento di Archimtiros

on 2019-04-26T18:05:03-05:00

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Always banning fun. Meanwhilst so much ^&*! is totally broken and exploits in 30 + man premade bgs have been around since early legion. You're so boring, Blizzard. This harmed noone.

This is so ridiculous. I've never heard of any one using it to exploit so I don't know why the main theme of this article was that. This isn't cheating... The only reason these bans went out and NEVER have before is because $$. They never cared before until now... I wonder why... They don't want people race changing or altering their character for free. All this talk about exploits in this article is bogus, don't believe it.

Did you even read?

"However, some users have found more exploitative ways to use these programs, such as resizing flags in Battle Grounds to make players easier to find, manipulating model scale to exploit their way into areas they otherwise shouldn't be in, and even manipulating the game world itself. Similar to the infamous wall hacking incident during AQ40, these are obvious exploits which Blizzard has very little tolerance for and has frequently issued banned on in the past."

They weren't all included in the article, but there are several admissions on Reddit of users explaining how they used the program in ways that are clearly exploits - even if they didn't necessarily "harm" anyone. Including:

Increasing the scale of resource nodes (herb, ore, netherwing eggs) to make them significantly larger and easier to find.

Increasing the scale of interactable objects in order to manipulate their way around the game world.

Increasing the scale of PvP objectives to make them easier to find.

And so on. Kind of a common trend, but the kind of manipulation the program is capable of opens up a whole lot of issues. Better to handle it early than once people have found ways to manipulate dungeon and raid models to delete walls, skip bosses, and do other things that cause legitimate unfair advantages.

Commento di nhozemphtekh

on 2019-04-26T18:08:43-05:00

I think the whole using it to "resize bg flags" shouldn't be used in the same article as programs like tmorph since it can only change thing you have. on top of that this sounds like a completely different program than those that people usually use.

Commento di Keyboardturner

on 2019-04-26T18:09:45-05:00

Very interesting. I personally quit making mods a long while back because I saw that modifying the .exe was no longer possible and instead moved to Program, which was an indicator to me they were gearing up to upping their security.

The mods I made however for adding customisation to existing races, like giving Wildhammer and Dark Iron skins to dwarves, giving mag'har to Orcs, giving trolls eye colours (yes they don't have any except for brown), giving Death Knights / Draenei / Night Elves irises, etc.

I was never banned myself, however, but I also haven't played with such since somewhere around mid-Legion.

End of the day to remember, though, is that you should always expect a ban from these sort of practices. Even though you may not be personally using the software maliciously, it can be used for such and it's altering game files which aren't meant to be easily altered.

Commento di Greenonion

on 2019-04-26T18:09:51-05:00

damn right! thats definitely cheating, I hate seeing char with big ti ts runing around when they dont original have it, so fake, ban them all.

Commento di Arakara

on 2019-04-26T18:13:28-05:00

Kinda happy that I stopped modding with 7.3. o_oPersonally, I was mostly working on making HD versions of old armor textures, like old T1.5 sets, to make them look better.It made me happy, gave me the desire to play more, something Blizzard is having a hard time achieving.And yeah, at one point, my orc shaman had a Horde-logo tatoo on her back. It made her look SO cool. Most fun I've had on WoW in years.When I stopped modding, I almost couldn't play my shaman anymore. Plus blizzard f@cked-us over with the artifact transmog rules.Meanwhile, most characters still can't have tatoos, and it's something Blizzard could add VERY easily for everyone, instead of a few for some races/classes, and they could make it into a system like a glyph for the character's body, and you could get more through reputations and professions... Oh but no, it would cost us a raid tier...Go figure.

Commento di fatgunn

on 2019-04-26T18:14:34-05:00

I feel kinda bad for the ones just using it to get nice armor or boobs, but they knew the risks. A lot easier on Blizz to just ban anyone using the program then unban those who properly appeal.

Commento di Momoi

on 2019-04-26T18:22:04-05:00

Hahaha but i like big breasts on my females. And i dont think that this harms anyone! I mean in Reallife there are also Womans that have big breasts do they harm someone? I dont get it why Blizzard is not adding the Option to Edit the proportion of Musles or breasts on female chars i mean i sometimes also like more chubby male/females just let me.